| Wilson Harris |
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| 1921 births | |
| harris, wilson | |
| living people | |
| guyanese writers | |
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Wilson Harris was born in New Amsterdam in the then British Guiana. After studying at Queen's College in the capital of Guyana, Georgetown , Harris became a government surveyor, before taking up a career as lecturer and writer. The knowledge of the savannas and rain forests he gained during his time as a surveyor form the setting of many of his books, the Guyanese landscape dominating his fiction. Wilson Harris’ writing style is quite idiosyncratic, and he is known for his broad vision and the abstract complexity of his heavily metaphorical style. He first wrote poetry, but since has become a well-known novelist and essayist. He came to England in 1959 and published his first novel ''Palace of the Peacock'' in 1960.This became the first of a quartet of novels, ''The Guyana Quartet'', which consists of ''The Far Journey of Oudin'' (1961), ''The Whole Armour'' (1962), and ''The Secret Ladder'' (1963). He later wrote a trilogy, ''Carnival'' (1985), consisting of ''The Infinite Rehearsal'' (1987), and ''The Four Banks of the River of Space'' (1990). His most recent novels are '' Jonestown '' (1996), which tells of the mass-suicide of a thousand followers of cult leader Jim Jones ; ''The Dark Jester'' (2001) and his latest semi-autobiographical novel, ''The Mask of the Beggar'' (2003). Wilson Harris also writes non-fiction and critical essays and has been awarded honorary doctorates by several universities, including the University Of The West Indies (1984) and the University Of Liège (2001). He has twice been winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature. Bibliography Novels ''Palace of the Peacock'', 1960 ''The Far Journey of Oudin'', 1961 ''The Whole Armour'', 1962 ''The Secret Ladder'', 1963 ''Heartland'', 1964 ''The Eye of the Scarecrow'', 1965 ''The Waiting Room'', 1967 ''Tumatumari'', 1968 ''Ascent to Omai'', 1970 ''The Sleepers of Roraima'' (illustrated by Kay Usborne), 1970 ''The Age of the Rainmakers'' (illustrated by Kay Usborne), 1971 ''Black Marsden: A Tabula Rasa Comedy'', 1972 ''Companions of the Day and Night'', 1975 ''Enigma of Values: An Introduction'', 1975 ''Da Silva da Silva's Cultivated Wilderness/Genesis of the Clowns'', 1977 ''The Tree of the Sun'', 1978 ''The Angel at the Gate'', 1982 ''Carnival'', 1985 ''The Guyana Quartet'' (''Palace of the Peacock'', ''The Far Journey of Oudin'',''The Whole Armour'', ''The Secret Ladder''), 1985 ''The Four Banks of the River of Space'', 1990 ''The Radical Imagination (essays)'', 1992 ''Resurrection at Sorrow Hill'', 1993 ''The Carnival Trilogy'' (''The Infinite Rehearsal'', ''The Four Banks of the River of Space'', ''Carnival''), 1993 ''Jonestown'', 1996 ''Selected Essays'', 1999 ''The Dark Jester'', 2001 ''The Mask of the Beggar'', 2003 Short stories''' ''The Sleepers of Roraima'', 1970 ''The Age of the Rainmakers'', 1971 Poetry ''Fetish Miniature Poets Series'', 1951 ''The Well and the Land'', 1952 ''Eternity to Season'', 1954 Nonfiction ''Tradition and the West Indian Novel (lecture)'', 1965 ''Tradition, the Writer and Society: Critical Essays'', 1967 ''History, Fable and Myth in the Caribbean and Guianas'', 1970 ''Fossil and Psyche'', 1974 ''Explorations: A Series of Talks and Articles 1966- 1981'', 1981 ''The Womb of Space: The Cross-Cultural Imagination'', 1983 ''The Infinite Rehearsal'', 1987 Prizes and awards 1987 Guyana Prize for Literature 1992 Premio Mondello dei Cinque Continenti 2002 Guyana Prize for Literature (Special Award) EXTERNAL LINK Wilson Harris: An Overview |
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